Ryan Thomas just walked from London to Manchester to raise money for charity

Ryan Thomas received an emotional welcome home after completing a lengthy charity challenge yesterday.

The former Coronation Street actor has spent the last ten days walking the 262 miles from Buckingham Palace back up to his home in Manchester in an effort to raise money for the mental health and suicide prevention charity, CALM, after a close friend of his took his own life during lockdown.

Speaking candidly about his friend, Ryan had said: “It really shook everyone. You’d never have known he was suffering.”

@ryanthomas84 /Instagram

Shortly after the tragedy, the actor announced that he would be partaking in a long charity walk in order to both raise money for CALM and overall awareness for the importance of mental health. Vowing to ‘let people know help is out there’, Ryan explained: “’If I can save even one life, I’ll have done a great job.”

On his fundraiser page on Just Giving, he wrote: “I am lucky enough to have a big following and as someone in the public eye I want to use it for positive change.

“The stats are shocking, and we need to do something about it. If one life is saved by me doing this challenge, if someone checks on their friend, or uses CALM for advice and help – then it’s been worth it.”

He continued: “I’ll also be using this time and challenge to use my platform to give the charity, mental health experts and survivors a platform to tell their story.”

Along with fellow Coronation Street star Chris Fountain, Ryan officially embarked upon his journey from Buckingham Palace on Saturday, May 9th, where he went on to walk the equivalent of ten marathons in just ten days.

He kept his Instagram followers updated throughout the entirety of his journey with regular post and Stories updates.

@scott.thomas / Instagram

And last night, an emotional Ryan arrived at Manchester Cathedral with his twelve year old daughter, Scarlett Jacqueline, who attended the final leg, where an abundance of friends and family awaited.

In his brother Scott Thomas’ Instagram Stories, Ryan could be seen overcome with emotion as he embraced his partner Lucy Mecklenburgh and their son Roman, who is fourteen months old. 

Fighting through tears at the finish line, Ryan said he couldn’t believe the support and messages he had received on his journey. He said: “I said to my brothers I need a purpose and my purpose now is to talk to more people because I met so many kind people.” 

Ryan had initially set his fundraiser target at £25,000 but, upon the completion of his trek, it had surpassed a staggering £157,000.